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The purpose of this study was to identify differences in the length of attention in 2-year-olds across three teaching conditions. A total of 49 2-year-olds were observed within their childcare classrooms. The child's regular classroom teacher was asked to select three highly preferred toys to use in offering the child choices within the teaching conditions of adult presentation (one toy) and adult choice (two toys); the child was given the instruction to "go play" during the child choice condition and could select from any material in the classroom. Children's attention in the adult choice condition was significantly longer. Results from the present study highlight the importance of a highly skilled teacher who has knowledge of child development and an understanding of individual child preferences.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of mLearning or mobile device practice on the attention and accuracy of student's use of math concepts, specifically, telling time. A single subject, alternating treatment design was used to compare mLearning to paper and pencil practice in four 3rd grade male students. Results were mixed; two children were observed to be more on-task during the mLearning practice, and two children were observed to perform similarly across both conditions. Additionally, two children performed similarly on correctly completed problems across both conditions, and two children performed better using paper and pencil practice. All students completed more math problems during the paper and pencil practice.

Leadership is of paramount importance to any organization, as leaders can set the tone for the organization's employees. The path to leadership in childcare can be markedly different from other professions, as there is no qualifying criteria; however, previous research has identified that for leaders to be effective they must possess skills, characteristics, and traits of effective leadership. The present study used "The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire" (MLQ) (in Bass and Avolio, Multifactor leadership questionnaire (TM), Mind Garden, Inc., Menlo Park, 1995) with childcare directors to determine their self-identified leadership styles including "transformational," "transactional," and "passive/avoidant" to determine if their leadership style was consistent with recommendations from the field. Results suggest that childcare directors who remain in the role of "managers" (displaying either "transactional" or "passive/avoidant" leadership styles) do not provide the leadership needed to provide a high quality of education for young children, which is consistent with previous research. This research echoes concern from the field for credentialing of childcare directors.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the opportunities kindergarten children in the United States had across different learning contexts (whole group, small group, center time, lunch, recess) to engage in social behavior as defined by the Developing Skills Checklist. Across a 3-year period, the social behaviors of 36 children across 13 public and private kindergarten classrooms were recorded to determine the frequency of social behaviors during the course of their regularly scheduled classroom activities. Social behavior was subdivided into the categories of "classroom skills," "self-esteem," "persistence," "self-expression," and "pro-social behavior." Differences were found between the five learning contexts when looking at children's social behavior. Overall, persistence was consistently demonstrated more often across all learning contexts. "Self-esteem" was observed more frequently during small group and center time than the whole group. "Self-expression" and "prosocial behavior" were observed at extremely low rates across all learning contexts.

Teaching has been identified as the most stressful profession in the human service industry (Greenberg in Teacher stress and heal the effects on teachers, students, and schools, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 2016). Elevated teacher stress not only affects the teacher's well-being and likelihood of burnout, but also the classroom climate of young children. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether mindfulness practices can increase positive classroom climate and decrease perceived stress in early childhood teachers. Participating teachers were selected based on results of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS, Cohen in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24:285-396, 1983). Data were collected on the positive and negative climate objectives from the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; Pianta in Classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS) manual, pre-K, Paul H. Brookes Pub. Co., Baltimore, 2008), which were operationally defined. The Mindfulness Practices Intervention included yoga poses, intentional breathing, and guided mediation (Harris in Mindfulness 7:143-154, 2015), which were implemented within the school day during arrival, mid-morning, lunch, mid-afternoon, and after work in the evening. Perceived Stress Scale scores decreased for two of the participating teachers; all three teachers' increased positive climate and decreased negative climate. Results of the current study suggest that this low-cost, low labor-intensive intervention was effective in improving classroom conditions for both teachers and young children.

Service learning (SL) is both a pedagogy and philosophy adopted by many early childhood teacher educators. Extant research suggests the incorporation of service-learning can be effective for facilitating preservice teacher learning of curriculum, pedagogy, approaches to diverse learners and families as well as establishing a professional identity. To guide the intentional adoption of SL and its assessment in early childhood teacher education programs, the authors present the Developmentally Appropriate Practice /P.A.R.E. model and illustrate how the model might be applied in a teacher education program. Challenges to incorporating service-learning in early childhood education programs and future areas of research are described.

It is considered a recommended practice to integrate literacy concepts into child-initiated choice center time long before formal reading instruction begins. The purpose of this study was to determine whether environmental modification and a teacher-mediated literacy intervention would increase child engagement of literacy behaviors during free choice time in the classroom. Data were collected on the literacy behaviors of 9 children across 3 inclusive preschool classrooms in a suburban public school system. A multiple baseline design was used to determine the effects of an environmental modification using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation and a teacher-mediated intervention on children's literacy behaviors. Results included an average increase of 43 percentage points (range = 39-45 percentage points) in observed literacy behaviors in each of the 3 classrooms. Individual children in each classroom demonstrated an increase in literacy behaviors from baseline to intervention. These results are consistent with previous research, which indicated that the modification of the environment and teacher mediation increase literacy behaviors.

The article discusses the importance of family literacy programs in early childhood education, emphasizing the value of collaborative partnerships between families and educators. These programs aim to support children's academic success, social-emotional development, and overall literacy skills. The article provides a detailed description of a family literacy program implemented in a preschool setting, highlighting the activities, schedule, and outcomes. The program focuses on engaging families in literacy activities, promoting parent involvement, and fostering a love for books at home. [Extracted from the article]

We evaluated a program for increasing pretend toy play of 2-year-old children with disabilities in an inclusive classroom. Classroom personnel implemented the program, which involved choices of classroom centers containing toys that tend to occasion pretend play in toddlers without disabilities, along with prompting and praise. Increases occurred in independent pretend-play rates among all 5 participating toddlers. Results are discussed regarding the importance of promoting toy play of very young children with disabilities that is similar to the type of play of their nondisabled peers, and the need to identify critical program components that are applicable in inclusive settings.

A multiple baseline study evaluated effects of using voice output devices to facilitate communicative initiation behaviors of two young nonverbal children with developmental delays. Both children increased their specific initiations and decreased unclear initiations and adult prompted communication behaviors. Results support the use of augmentative voice output devices with young nonverbal children. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

This article is centred on the constructs of teacher quality as defined by early childhood (EC) teachers in Belize. Using the concept of teacher beliefs as a framework, the researchers analyse teachers' perceptions of quality teaching, which should guide policy and practice decisions. For this pilot study, data were collected from 22 teachers using open-ended and Likert-scale questions from a questionnaire (n = 13) or focus groups (n = 9). Guiding research questions first sought to identify behaviours teachers believed were important or need to be stopped or improved, and second, to determine teacher agreement with guiding standards for excellence in EC teacher preparation as identified by National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Open-coding and descriptives were used to interpret qualitative and quantitative findings. Themes identified by teachers as important EC teacher behaviours and behaviours that needed to be stopped or improved are presented, as well as teachers' agreement with standards of excellence in EC as identified by NAEYC.

Prompt strategies have been used to increase the compliance of preschool-aged children to teacher directives. This paper describes two experiments conducted to determine if classroom teachers could learn to use the LtM prompt hierarchy and if child compliance would increase in response to teacher behavior. This study builds on the current literature base by using prompting, specifically LtM with the additional requirement of teacher-child proximity and teacher-child eye level prior to beginning the prompt sequence, which is consistent with recommended practice in early childhood (Copple and Bredekamp, "Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs" (revised edition), National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC, 2009). The participants consisted of 6 preschool teachers, with varying levels of education and experience, across 2 different early childhood classrooms. Teacher prompts and children's completion of teacher directives were measured during free choice center time. Results were consistent with previous research in that compliance to teacher directives increased in preschool children with the implementation of the LtM.

This study explores the associations among parental education, weekly work hours, child behaviours, and parental daily hassles and parents desires for continuity between home and childcare. Data were collected using questionnaires from 82 parents with a child attending centre-based childcare in the Midwestern US. Results indicate that parent education and work hours are directly and indirectly related to the desire of continuity of practice between home and childcare programme and parental daily hassles. Path analysis results show higher parental education decreases parents desire for continuity of practices, while more weekly work hours increases parents desire for continuity of practices. Additional findings related to education, parental daily hassles and child behaviours are reported. Future research should investigate the perceptions of parents and the fit between the offerings of the centre and parental expectations for both familial and child adjustment.

Teachers spend the first few days of school teaching routines to children that will help transitions in the classroom between different activities. When children have difficulty, they move more slowly and/or require teacher prompting. A picture activity schedule intervention (Breitfelder in Teach Except Child Plus 4(5):2-15, 2008; Bryan and Gast in J Autism Dev Disord 30(6):553-567, 2000) was used to assist a 5-year-old boy in completing three routines within the kindergarten classroom. Results indicated that the picture activity schedule increased the child's independent completion of each of the three routines, while also decreasing the need for teacher prompting.

This study examined the mean duration of child attention across three teaching conditions (child choice, adult choice, or adult presentation) of 63 preschool-age children. A repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare the means across the three teaching conditions, indicating a statistically significant difference between the teaching conditions. It was also found that children attended for a longer period of time when given more choice, with child attention decreasing more as less choice what given. Results suggest that teachers should consider environments that allow children the opportunity to make choices in order to maximize their attention.

Objective: The authors explored the psychosocial consequences of the COVID‐19 homestay lockdown for preschool‐age children and their parents using a mixed‐method design. Background: Few studies have examined the impact of a global pandemic on family adaptive processes among parents and their preschool age children. Method: Participants were 24 highly educated White and Asian parents with children enrolled in the Early Childhood Education Laboratory Preschool (ECELP) at Louisiana State University. Parents completed an online survey that assessed sociodemographic and health characteristics, and they participated in an interview with their children. Results: Content analysis of parent and child narratives yielded four core themes: (a) expanded family time with family needs prioritized, (b) staying informed with current pandemic news, (c) positive experiences included more time spent with family, and (d) negative experiences included disruptions to family and work‐related routines. Conclusion: Personal and professional challenges that families faced during the COVID‐19 lockdown were loss of familiar routines, managing stressors, and protecting health. Positive factors included prioritization of family needs and new opportunities for intergenerational relationships with extended family and grandparents. Implications: Parents, teachers, and extended family support adaptive family processes that promote resilience and psychosocial well‐being despite the uncertainties of a global pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rough and tumble play has been found to be positive for physical, social and cognitive development; it is often erroneously misinterpreted as aggression and generally stopped by preschool teachers. The current study sought to examine the relationship between teacher training and education and judgements about aggression in children. Ninety-four preschool teachers currently working in child care centres viewed two videotapes depicting preschool-aged boys engaged in naturally occurring outdoor play. Participants scored the tapes for occurrence of aggression, using their own definition. Results indicated that child care providers with a four-year college degree in early childhood education reported less aggressive behaviours than those without a college degree. Novice child care providers reported higher levels of aggression than more experienced preschool teachers; child care providers with similar education/experience were more likely to report aggression within the same observation segment. These findings suggest that education may support more accurate assessments of aggressive play.

Background: This study applies attachment and transactional theories in evaluating the dyadic interactions observed between a mother and her infant. Infant communication and maternal responsivity are highlighted as the medium for positive interaction. Objective: The impact of individualized maternal training on mother infant communicative interaction is proposed to be positive. Methods: A sample of three mothers and their infants were observed during 10 min free play sessions before and after a training intervention. The focus of the training was the principles of parenting contained in the Right-from-Birth: A Parenting Series (Grace and Lindsey in "Right from Birth: A Parenting Series Guide for Facilitators," Educational Broadcasting and Early Childhood Institute, Mississippi, 2003) training. A multiple baseline design was used to measure maternal responsiveness to infant communication. Positive and negative maternal responses, as well as the rate of infant communication were also measured. Results: Results showed an increase in positive maternal responses, a decrease in negative maternal responses as well as an increase in the rate of infant communication. Conclusion: These findings underscore the importance of training on correct interpretation of and appropriate maternal responses to infant's communicative cues, in order to encourage positive mother-infant interactions.

Background: Children receive support for their learning and development from multiple sources and within various developmental contexts. The extant literature investigating children's social supports has uncovered multiple benefits to positive and complex social support system. However, the measurement of children's social supports has largely been accomplished through accessing knowledge of either a parent or child. In order to understand children's support systems, which are embedded within multiple contexts and prejudiced by multiple influences, it is imperative to access all relevant perspectives. Objective: This exploratory project was undertaken by a preschool teacher-researcher in order to understand the types of information eco-maps provide about children's social support networks in an effort to support young children's learning and development. Methods: Eco-map interviews describing children's social networks were completed by preschool-age children, their parents and their preschool teacher. Each informant identified the major people in the child's support network, described relationships, and identified the type and developmental area of support provided by each individual. All the information was graphically represented within an eco-map using shapes and color coding to distinguish variations. Results: Qualitative analysis of five children's completed maps revealed three themes: agreement on an inner circle, different perspectives on the kinds of support provided, and children's unique way of expressing support. Conclusion: Eco-maps with children, parents, and teachers may contribute to educational research and practice through providing detailed information about children's social support network through the identification of resources to support the development and learning of young children.

This study developed a typology of recommended teacher practices related to whole-group instruction in preschool classrooms and examined the relationship between teachers' use of the practices and children's attentiveness. Thirty-nine classrooms in 31 schools (15 public and 16 private) were observed during regularly scheduled whole-group instruction sessions. Bivariate correlations indicated a positive relationship between children's attentiveness and number of practices that teachers used, but not between attentiveness and length of activity. Regression analyses suggested a set of eight specific practices that are related, with length of activity, to children's attentiveness. (Contains 3 tables.)

Early childhood professionals are familiar with finding and appreciating daily moments of joy. Teachers smile inside and out when toddlers are able to pull up their own pants, preschoolers write their names for the first time, or kindergarteners figure out how to make complicated patterns with blocks. Working with young children can also be very stressful. Adults are self motivated to reduce their stress. Common recommendations for ways to reduce stress at work, such as going out with colleagues to eat lunch, often are not possible in a teacher's unique work environment. Teachers and administrators can work together to reduce job stress with strategies that engage the mind, body, and soul, such as those recommended in this article.

Naturalistic teaching methods are often used to facilitate explicit child-directed instruction within early childhood environments. They are designed to promote opportunities for instruction within the context of daily routines. The teacher's role is to design the environment and select materials, activities, and routines that will promote children's opportunities to perform specific skills. When the opportunity arises (e.g., the child indicates interest or begins to interact with toys or an activity), the teacher provides the instructional support necessary to assist the child to participate successfully in the activity or routine and complete the skill. It is important for teachers to identify if children are neglecting interest centers and to plan an intervention that will engage them in a variety of activities. The purpose of this article is to share strategies, consistent with naturalistic teaching methods, which support and enhance the inclusion of young children with special needs in early childhood environments. These strategies build on high-quality early childhood programs to facilitate child-specific instruction by helping teachers (a) examine the environment, (b) observe engaged toy play within classroom learning centers, (c) identify preferred qualities of toys, (d) embed toys with preferred qualities within least preferred learning centers, and (e) determine and use required levels of adult prompting to elicit learning objectives. The collective purpose of these strategies is to encourage and support the play of children with disabilities in the inclusive preschool classroom. (Contains 3 tables.)

Playing with toys as a means of environmental engagement has long been considered important in early child development (D. J. Messer, D. Rachford, M. E. McCarthy, & L. J. Yarrow, 1987; M. Wolery, M. G. Werts, & M. Holcombe, 1994). However, children with highly significant disabilities often engage in toy play less frequently than their peers without disabilities (P. M. Blasco, D. B. Bailey, & M. A. Burchinal, 1993; C. F. DiCarlo, D. H. Reid, & S. B. Stricklin, 2003; M. B. Langley, 1985) and frequently need specialized support to promote toy play (J. J. Ivory & J. A. McCollum, 1999; M. B. Langley, 1985; S. Sandall, 2003). In this study, preference assessment technology was used to identify preferred sensory attributes of very young children. Once identified, those attributes were embedded into a toy previously identified as nonpreferred. The initial paired-item presentation consisted of a rotation of 4 toys from the natural environment using a child-directed approach, which consisted of choice, prompting, and praise for completion of functional toy play. An additional condition added the child's preferred sensory attribute to a nonpreferred toy using the above-mentioned procedures. Results indicated that the addition of a preferred sensory attribute increased selection of that toy with 2 of 3 children and resulted in increased independent functional toy play for all 3 children.

Emergent literacy research states that young children learn about reading and writing through experiences with oral and written language. The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency with which individual preschool children voluntarily engaged in literacy behaviors during free choice in the classroom. The sample consisted of nine preschool children from low-income families enrolled in three classrooms in an urban preschool program. The classroom environment was assessed using the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO; Smith, Dickinson, Sangeorge, & Anastasopoulos, 2002), which provides information on how well the classroom environment supports early literacy development. Literacy behaviors were measured during center time, a period when children are allowed to choose their activities. Intervention consisted of 1) adding literacy props to centers based on the needs identified by the ELLCO and 2) a teacher mediation intervention. Results were consistent with previous studies in that the addition of literacy props, paired with teacher mediation, led to an increase in literacy behaviors among preschool children. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

This article describes how early childhood teacher education faculty at one university responded in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and used the disaster to enhance their undergraduate and graduate programs. They explain how they modeled developmentally appropriate practices while responding to community needs. Four companion articles present students' perspectives. Resources and suggestions for teacher educators are included. (Contains 12 online resources and 6 resources.)

An evaluation of the impact of training on caregiver responsiveness was conducted to examine changes in caregiver behavior. Six infant and toddler child care caregivers were observed prior to and following a 6-hour statewide training, based on the Right from Birth series (Ramey & Ramey, 1999). This training focused on caregiver responsiveness to infants and toddlers that was measured using a multiple baseline design. Observers examined both positive and negative caregiver behaviors that were categorized as either active or passive. Following the training, an increase in positive caregiver behaviors and a decrease in negative caregiver behaviors were observed. These results support the importance of training programs and the requirements of regulations for training of child care providers. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)

The effects of modifying the structural quality components of inclusive classrooms on material engagement among toddlers (18-36 months) with and without disabilities were evaluated. Initially, three classrooms were evaluated using items that addressed structural quality from the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale, the National Association for the Education of Young Children Classroom Observation Form, and the Assessment Profile for Early Childhood Programs. Each classroom environment was then modified based on the results of the evaluation by adding toys, furniture, and supplies. Results demonstrate that modification of structural quality elements increased overall engagement with materials for eight of nine children. Areas for future research noted include modification of the structural quality components of child care classrooms to increase mastery toy play. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

A study evaluated a more-to-less, child-directed continuum of intervention to increase toy play among six toddlers with multiple disabilities. Toddlers were provided with repeated choices of preferred toys in a child-directed manner. Nonprompted toy play for two toddlers increased. Toy play also increased for another child after staff prompts and praise. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Evaluation of effects of manual signing on toddlers' verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors in an inclusive preschool found that teacher signing was accompanied by increases in communicative interactions by toddlers with and without disabilities. No reductive effects on communicative verbalizations were observed for either group. (Contains six references.) (Author/DB)